An Indian court has ordered Royal Enfield pay an engineer an undisclosed compensation payment after he complained of 40 defects in his Himalayan adventure bike.
Owner M Puneeth, an engineer, noticed issues from the first day he picked up the bike. They include a leaking carburettor and fuel tank, engine noises, stalling, oil leaks, idling problems and difficult gear shifts.
Royal Enfield is consulting with their legal advisers and my appeal the court ruling.
The adventure bike has been plagued by issues since its launch last year such as rust, electrical failure and even the promotional video showed a broken footpeg.
It was also temporarily banned in the capital of India because it doesn’t meet their new emissions standards. However, the government lifted the ban because the bike was launched on March 16, which was before the new emissions standards applied from April 1, 2016.
There is no word on whether any of the issues cited by the engineer affect Australian customers as the importers, Urban Moto Imports, have failed to reply to requests for comment.
However, it seems most of the issues involve motorcycles on the domestic market.
There has been no official safety recall for the bike in Australia or any other country.
The Royal Enfield Himalayan 411cc adventure bike sells in Australia at $5990 plus on-road costs.
It is not known how many have been sold here as UMI is not a member of the FCI which releases the official sales figures every quarter.
Meanwhile, Royal Enfield recorded its highest monthly sales in April with 60,142 bikes sold, up 25% on the previous month.
However, all but 1578 were sold in India.
The biggest seller is the Classic 350 which sold 4,16,693 in the past year. Sales of their bikes over 350cc actually dropped 23% in April 2017.
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Did you buy a Himalayan and have you encountered any of these issues? Leave your comments below.